Fulfillment
by WhosInTheAttic
Summary: Sequel to "Catharsis"; Rose returns to Alec.


"Alec?" DI Alec Hardy turned toward the enquiring voice and was so stunned by the sight that greeted him that he dropped his untouched Ninety-Nine. The blonde woman before him looked down at the ice cream, and then back at him. "I'm sorry," she said.

Alec looked at the ice cream and then bent to pick it up, "No, no; it's okay. Really," he assured her, dropping it into the rubbish bin and coming to stand in front of her.

"Hello."

"Hello," he smiled in a way that didn't quite reach his eyes. She looked the exact same as last time, down to the leather jacket she wore. "You haven't changed a bit," he told her, his smile finally genuine.

"How long's it been?"

"Oh, a little more than a year."

Rose's eyes went wide for a moment, and she smiled bashfully, "That long already, huh?"

"Aye."

"So you went through with it, then?" she gestured at her own chest.

"Aye, awhile back now. Solved a big case; thought I should treat myself to something, and since the NHS was buying, I thought 'Why not another 40 years?'" he smiled.

Rose chuckled, "Good on you, Alec," there was a long pause, and she looked him over thoughtfully; he seemed to stand taller; maybe he'd taken her words to heart and shaken off some of that burden he'd been carrying. He certainly looked healthier and better-slept. He looked as though he may have gotten a bit of sun; his freckles seemed to stand out more than they had at their first meeting. His beard was also neatly trimmed, though his hair was still a bit of a mop.

"So. You never told me your name."

"You never asked."

"What is your name?"

Rose bit her lip and hesitated before she smiled, "Rose. My name is Rose."

"Nice to meet you," Alec replied, extending his hand to hers. She gave it a brief shake and held it for longer than was strictly necessary before letting it go. "What brings you back to Broadchurch?"

Rose blushed. "Well…um, _you, _actually. As soon as I found out I'd be passing through, I thought I'd see how you were. I just didn't realize it'd been so bloody _long." _

Alec stared at her for a long moment, and Rose added, "So?"

"So what?"

"How are you doing?"

"Surprisingly well. After the big case last year, I was forced into retirement. I had the surgery, and once I proved I could still perform my duties as an officer, I was reinstated; been a pretty quiet job since then; drugs cases and assaults, mostly. Bloody tourists."

"You're a copper?"

"Detective Inspector, if you want to be formal," he smiled. "And you? What have you been up to?"

"I've just been travelin'."

"Did you find what you were looking for in London?"

"Not yet."

"Rose," Alec hesitated and tugged at his earlobe, "I know it's short notice, but…would you…care to join me for dinner?"

She paused for a moment; she had at least sixteen hours before her next dimension cannon jump, "Yes. Yeah. Sure," she smiled.

"Shall we then?" he gestured with one arm.

"D'you make it a habit of having ice cream just before dinner?"

"I wouldn't call it a habit," he said defensively, placing one hand on his hip. Rose threaded her arm through his elbow and winked. Really, he hadn't planned on dinner just now, but he wanted to have a sit-down with Rose and dinner seemed the best way.

"Let's go then," she smiled.

"Did you really stop in Broadchurch to see me?" he asked, sipping from his glass of wine. The server had already collected the remnants of their dinners, and now the pair lingered over their unfinished bottle of wine.

"At the risk of sounding like a total nutter? Yes. I did come here to see you. Plus, isn't it a little rude to give unwanted advice and then not follow up?"

Alec chuckled, "I'm glad you offered it, even if I pretended not to listen," he suddenly grew shy, and shifted in his seat a little, "And…not to sound like a total nutter, Rose, but…" he reached for his wallet and pulled out a scrap of paper, "I've been hoping you'd come back," he set the paper down, and she recognized her own handwriting.

"You kept that?" she said, touched.

"Aye."

"Why?"

"Because it was the kindest gesture anyone had given me in a long while. And because it was all I had to remember you by," he said that last bit more to the bottom of his wine glass than to her, but she understood his words all the same.

"Alec?"

"Hmm?"

"Will you take me back to yours?"

His breath caught and for a moment he didn't know what to say. Rose had populated his fantasies through many lonely nights, and after awhile he started to worry that he had dreamt her. Now here she was, sitting across from him and asking _that. _"I…yes," he said, nervously finishing the contents of his wine glass and pouring the last of the bottle into he and Rose's glasses, "On one condition."

"What's that?"

"Don't leave without saying goodbye?"

"Deal."

Alec pressed Rose's back against the wall of his sitting room, just beside the front door. He threaded his fingers through her hair and pulled her toward him until their lips met in a bruising kiss. He nipped her lower lip and pressed the planes of his body against the curves of hers. The hand that wasn't wound into her hair found her hip and squeezed it.

Rose broke the kiss and giggled, "Alec, _what _has gotten into you?" she nipped his lower lip and swiped her tongue over it as he tried to speak.

"I, was, not well, when we last met," he said, pausing to kiss her and savor the feel of her tongue tracing the curves of his lips. "I wasn't exactly at the top of my game," he punctuated the last with a firm thrust against her, and she whimpered.

She threaded her fingers into his hair and pulled his mouth to hers once more. Suddenly, his hands were on her breasts, kneading them over the fabric of her shirt. She nipped his lower lip and then brought her hands around to cup his arse, pulling him flush against her and feeling his arousal against her hip.

"If _that _wasn't you in top form, I'm doomed," she giggled.

"Aye, you are."

Alec gripped her waist and whirled them around, backing her toward his bedroom. In short order, they were a tangle of limbs on his bed, tugging at each other's clothes, lips exploring each exposed inch as pieces of clothing were peeled away one by one.

It was all so fast, so frantic; but so _wonderful. _The wine swimming in their blood made them uninhibited; finally, Rose was in nothing but her knickers, clutching the tie that hung loosely around Alec's neck. She palmed him over his pants as he used his tie to tug him down for a kiss. She slid her hand around to clutch his arse again, and he rutted against her, his hard cock creating delicious friction against her center.

Alec scrambled from the bed to remove his pants, and tugged at his tie to loosen it, pulling it over his head before returning to the bed and covering Rose's body with his own. He tugged at her knickers and lightly snapped the waistband, "These need to go," he said against her mouth, tugging at one side as Rose worked the other, shimmying her hips and bending her legs awkwardly until finally she was free of the last vestiges of her clothing.

He dipped his tongue into the hollow of her throat, running his tongue up the column of her neck to her ear to nip at the lobe before trailing his lips down again, along the curve of her clavicle and over the swell of her breasts until his lips surrounded her nipple. Rose sighed and arched her back, pressing herself into his touch, his mouth. His hand worked her other breast, kneading it firmly, squeezing her nipple between his fingers. He pressed his face between her breasts, and the contrast of the feel of his soft, hot lips and the scratchy stubble of his beard sent chills through her. When he closed his lips around her other nipple, Rose whimpered his name. He murmured against her chest and slid a hand between her legs, feeling her moisture as his fingers slid through her folds. He stroked her clit experimentally before dipping his first finger, sliding it home to curl against her walls before withdrawing to add another. He curled his two fingers against her slick walls as he kissed a wet line up to her ear once more.

"I've thought a lot about you this past year, Rose," he said, his voice low and husky, "Some mornings I'd wake up feeling like a randy teenager," he nipped her ear lobe and she sighed, "hard," he ground his erection against her hip, "ready…" he trailed off as he withdrew his fingers from her slick channel. Alec shifted over her and poised at her entrance, "I hoped I would get the chance to take you like this," he teased the head of his cock through her folds, and Rose whimpered, her hips arching against him. "I want you, Rose."

"Then have me," she replied, and the way her voice broke, it was nearly a plea. His words caused something to coil tightly in her belly, and all she wanted was him. "Take me, Alec."

He thrust into her hard, and both of them cried out in unison and went still. For a moment, he looked worried that he hurt her, but she just smiled. After a moment, she rocked her hips to signal she was fine, and he started to move. He took her hard; pushing into her almost frantically as she clawed at his back, clutched at his arse, and called his name. She rolled her hips in time with the rhythm he'd set, and _fuck _it felt good.

He hooked her knee into the crook of his elbow and drove himself deeper into her. Rose cried out in pleasure at the feel of him so deep inside her, filling her, stretching her, pulsing against her walls as they clutched his cock greedily.

"Yes Alec! Yes. Oh, just like that!" Rose cried out, and it caused something to break in him. Oh, how he'd missed her. He hadn't realized how much. Or perhaps he wouldn't let himself dwell on it, because he knew then—just as he knows right in this moment—that she could never be his. She has a life, and she's only sharing it with him now by some unknown cosmic accident.

"Fuck! Ye feel so good; so amazin'. I love to touch you," and with those last words, he slipped a hand between them and began working her clit with his thumb, "Come for me, Rose," he groaned.

Rose felt tension coiling inside of her, and the rhythmic strokes of his thumb on her clit combined with the powerful movements of him into and against her brought her to the edge. As her orgasm took her, he covered her mouth with his own and trapped her cries in a brilliant, claiming kiss. He continued to thrust into her, carrying her down from her peak, until finally he broke.

Alec buried his face in her shoulder as he came, nipping her neck as he emptied himself into her, struggling to stifle his cries against her skin.

He lay on top of her, not ready to leave her arms or her body, allowing his heart to slow and his breathing to steady as she stroked his back. He felt her toes curl against his calves and he smiled. He kissed her neck, then her lips. "You're wonderful, Rose," he told her.

"_You're _wonderful," she told him.

He slowly rolled off of her, and then pulled her to his side. Rose threw an arm around him, and he stroked her hair. They were silent for a long while before Alec took a deep breath. "Rose?"

"Hm?"

"Why are you here with me?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing."

"The first time, even. Why?"

"Because I was on holiday and you're dead sexy, you are," she said playfully, turning her head to plant a kiss on his bare chest.

"Don't think that flattering me is going to get you out of answering the question," he smirked. Alec began tracing his fingertips across the round of her shoulder and down her arm.

"That first time? I was lonely; but I told you that. I was trying to figure out when—_where_—I was and started talking to you. I knew right off we needed each other that night."

"Mind-reader, are you?"

"No. Didn't have to be. You looked so unhappy someone 'ould have to be blind not to notice."

"And now?" he asked.

"You're looking like you took my advice."

He smiled and kissed the top of her head. He wasn't sure how she could be cagey _and _cut to the heart of things in the same moment. She was still a complete mystery, one he was sure now that he'd never solve. The part of him that drove him to join the force bristled at the thought of that.

Rose broke his train of thought with her words, " 'm gonna have to leave soon."

"Don't."

"You know I have to."

"Why? Why does it have to be now?"

"Because if I stay too long, I could change everything."

"You already have," he said, taking her hand and lacing their fingers together.

The familiar fit of his hand in hers made her heart ache. Rose turned to look him in the eye, still curled against his side, "I could change things I shouldn't."

"I don't understand."

"Do you really need to?"

"No," he lied. If these were going to be their last moments together, he didn't want them to be spent arguing. He rolled on top of her and pinned her to the mattress. He looked at her for a long moment, focusing on her lips before looking her in the eyes.

Rose felt heat blossom in her belly as Alec studied her face. She bit her lip and gazed back at him. Traveling across the Void was lonely and difficult; it was often terrifying and dangerous, too. Alec was a small, selfish comfort, and she felt like a horrible person for keeping things from him. She rocked her hips against him ever-so-slightly and then kissed him tenderly.

Alec shifted, adjusted himself with one hand, and slowly entered her. She sighed beneath him and threaded her arms under his, clutching his shoulder with one hand and his arse with the other. Earlier, it had been frantic and needy…now it was all slow, firm, raw passion. He pressed into her and against her, and his lips against her neck, his beard brushing her cheek, the way his breath trembled against her skin; it was all perfect.

They moved together, skin against sweat-slicked skin, muffled cries in the low light, hands gripping and fumbling over each other's curves. When Alec's fingertips found their way to where they were joined, and his thumb circled her clit, she dug her nails into his back and cried out against his neck as she came, pulling him after her.

Afterward, they laid together in silence, Alec tracing lazy circles across her bare flesh until he fell asleep. His dreams were jumbled and pleasant, but had an air of sadness in them. It was that underlying sadness that brought him to consciousness again. He shifted to put his arm around Rose and found the bed empty. His eyes snapped open and relief washed over him as he heard her rustling about the room.

"Rose?" he whispered.

"I'm sorry I woke you."

"You didn't, but I'm glad I _did. _You were just goin' to swan off without saying goodbye, weren't you?"

"No," she lied, his choice of words echoing old memories and making tears prick at the back of her eyes, "It's time for me to leave, Alec," she said.

"I know," he said, sitting up. He began searching for his pants as Rose walked toward the door.

"Alec?" he turned to look at her as she opened the door, and she tucked her hair behind her ear and sighed, "Goodbye."

"Rose, wait!" he grabbed his pants and tugged them on as he heard the front door open and shut, and dashed out after her.

He stopped short on his front porch and looked down the street; nothing. He circled his house once and there was nothing. It was as if she'd vanished into thin air.

His shoulders slumped and he returned to his bedroom, and sat on the edge of his bed. He raked his fingers through his hair. He looked at the clock on his night table, and then noticed the note.

Alec smiled despite himself as he unfolded it.

_Alec,_

_You are a wonderful man. Never doubt that. I've learned a lot in my travels…the world is bigger than you and me, and I have a responsibility to it that I can't walk away from. Please don't think that my leaving had anything to do with you._

_Have a fantastic life,_

_Rose_

Alec slipped the paper into his billfold and decided that he'd follow her advice a second time.


End file.
